


The Long Road Onwards

by HamishHolmes



Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 17:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/788454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HamishHolmes/pseuds/HamishHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Free Will: After Death</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First

Sam woke. He hadn’t really expected to wake. The last thing he remembered was praying to Gabriel as his chest leaked onto the steering wheel. He sat up and put a hand to his chest. Nothing, well, nothing out of the ordinary, there was a chest there. He stood up and found that he had complete control over his body and that he was in no pain. Sam got a grip on his mind and looked around him. He was in a large waiting room. The hospital? No, too big and clean and quiet.

He walked to the door and studied it. It was a normal door in most respects, but it had no lock or handle. Then a voice behind him said, “It will open when we have talked.”  
Sam turned, recognising the voice instantly.

“Chuck?” he asked, looking at the man but not quite believing that he was there.

“Actually, it’s God,” the man said, smiling up at Sam.

“Hello ... God,” replied Sam, slightly stunned.

“You seem flustered, my son,” God said waving a hand. The door behind Sam clicked open and Sam felt a cool breeze rush through it.

“If you go through that door, you will re-live your best and worst moments of your life. Sort of like a clip show,” God smiled at his own joke, “Then you will arrive at the gates to Heaven.”

“Heaven?!” asked Sam, incredulously, “You’re letting me into paradise?”

“You deserve it. Sam, you are a hero!”

Sam began to frown, but God had disappeared, leaving him alone in the empty room.

Sam looked at the spot where God had been standing, and then he shook he head, wondering what on earth made him a hero. But he wasn’t really going to argue with God.  
He wandered through the open door.

***

Sam couldn’t see for a split second, then he saw it. The night sky was peppered with pinpricks of light. But more important to Sam was the person who was watching the stars. Dean was sat on the hood of the impala, alongside Sam himself, drinking beer and taking a break. They were not talking but a lot was being said. They lay there for hours. Sam remembered that when morning had come and they had had to move, Dean tried to get, but fell over into Sammy because his legs were too stiff and he sent them both flailing to the ground. They had found it hilarious and Sam still did.

Then the scene went black and he delved into less pleasant memories.

He stood in the corner of a room. Ruby, Dean and Sam’s past self ran in. Sam’s mind screamed because he knew this memory but he was desperately trying to tell himself he was wrong, that this wasn’t that time. Then they were securing the room and taking a breather. Sammy wanted to scream at them all, but specifically Dean, to run. Then Ruby revealed herself to be Lilith and she let the hellhound in. Sam knew that Dean got out of hell and that he was fine-ish. But all the same tears streamed down his cheeks and onto the floor as he saw his brother’s torso being torn to shreds. The blood poured from Dean’s chest mingling with the dust on the floor and Lilith turned her attentions to Sam.  
But Sam had already moved on, leaving for another memory.

Slowly, Sam made his way through a montage of wonderful and horrible memories. Dean’s death, Dad’s death, Bobby’s death, Ellen and Jo’s deaths, Pam’s blinding and so many others mixed with Flagstaff, Stanford, Prank wars, Family reunions and Gabe, so many of Sam’s happy memories included Gabriel. The time he said he was hungry so Gabriel had taken him to the Queen of England’s birthday banquet. The time they’d watched a movie because Dean and Cas were having sex. When they first moved in together and redecorated the whole house manually, so that they could have a paint war. 

Eventually, Sam arrived at a pair of gates. Tall and white, they stretched into the sky forever and the intricate details in the metal work showed scenes from human history and scenes from Heaven’s history intertwined.

“Hello,” said a voice from a small speaker, “it’s Pete.”

“St Peter?” Sam asked leaning forward.

“If you like Sam. I’m at a party so I can’t come in person but just come on in!”

The gates began to swing open.

“No.”

“Pardon?” said Pete, sure he’d misheard over the music.

“I refuse to go in, knowing that Gabe and Dean are out there without me.” Sam said, sitting down, “I am going to sit here until they come to join me.”

Pete shrugged his shoulders, forgetting Sam couldn’t see and the gates swung gently closed.

And Sam sat there, head against the gates of heaven, and waited.


	2. The Lover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angels get an afterlife?

Gabriel felt the pain in his heart leave. This wasn’t right. Angels didn’t get and afterlife ... did they?

He sat and rubbed his chest, feeling for the scar he knew wouldn’t be there. It didn’t surprise him. He stood and felt for a wall. He found one, but it melded so perfectly with everything around him that it looked like it stretched on forever, whilst keeping him contained.

His wings unfurled behind him and his grace shone beautifully.

“Hello, Father,” he said without looking up.

“Hey Gabriel,” replied God.

“What’s happening? I thought we didn’t get an afterlife,” said Gabe, turning to look at his dad.

“I never told angels that you got an afterlife, but you do,” said God, looking at his son.

“Why? “asked Gabriel, taking a seat opposite his father, who was enthroned in a comfy armchair.

“Because you would become even more arrogant. Michael and Lucifer have shown me that you are already to full of your own importance. You think you can rule the world. If you knew you got an afterlife ... No, a guaranteed salvation, you would become unbearable,” God said, being completely honest with Gabe.

“Ah yes, my lovely brothers. Well, where do we go? Heaven, Purgatory, Hell?” Gabriel asked, hoping against hope that God would answer his prayers.

“Well,” God smiled, “being the creator of all does have its perks and I know a hunter who is dying to see you. But you’ll have to follow the road like everyone else.”

Gabe’s eyes widened and he nodded almost imperceptibly. The lights went off and Gabriel was suddenly somewhere else. He knew how this worked; he had shepherded souls through it before, watching from a distance to see whether they were surviving and making sure they kept going. 

But now it was different; now he had to live through his worst and best moments. And he wasn’t looking forward to it.

The darkness twisted and began to take a form. Gabriel screamed. He wanted to run. He wasn’t sure if Heaven was worth it after all. The car tyres squealed, the backend spun and Gabe was back in his worst nightmare. 

Gabe was there that time, when Sammy whispered his name and whispered the last prayer that left his lips. It broke Gabe’s heart in ways he never thought could be fixed, but he knew that Sam was waiting for him at the other end.

Gabe went through his millennia of life. The time he nearly threw Cas off the top of the Empire State when it was first built. The time he took Cas and showed him the fish that would create human life. The time he fought Lucifer and nearly died. The time Sam and he first met. The first date, when Gabe had promised to take out the younger Winchester so Cas could ‘fornicate’ with Dean.

Gabriel seemed to have amassed more depressing moments than ecstatic moments, but all his happy moments centred on family: Dean, Cas and Sammy, his earthly family, or his brothers and Father, his heavenly family.

Finally, tears streaming down his face, he arrived at towering pearly gates. He had seen the gates many times of course, but never from the outside, never as the souls saw them, beautiful and shining in their splendour. But even as Gabriel wondered, his gaze wandered downwards, resting on the figure propped at the bottom of the gates, eyes closed, head back.

Gabriel moved forward, uncertain of the reception he would get with the man he should have saved. He cleared his throat slightly, part of him hoping to catch Sam’s attention, another wishing he could hide in the shadows forever. But Sam’s hazel eyes locked onto Gabe’s amber ones and he couldn’t escape.

“Sam ...” he began, but he got no further as his body was enveloped in a huge full body hug. Their limbs tangled and their lips met in a passionate kiss. Tears streamed down the faces of both men and neither could contain his obvious love for the other.

“Sasquatch, listen,” Gabriel began again, when he was released from his lover’s tight grip, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have zapped away; it was cowardice on my part and I am ashamed of it. My wings could have saved you in that crash and ...”

Gabriel was interrupted again by a soft _Gabe._

He looked up, unaware that he had been staring at the floor. He saw no blame in Sam’s eyes, no hatred only pure simple love.

“You are here now. We are together. I didn’t expect to live a long life, but I lived it with you and that’s what matters.” Sam held Gabriel’s chin and looked deep, seeing the self-loathing buried deep, “you’re not getting rid of me!”

“Why are you out here?” asked Gabriel after a moments silence, “why aren’t you in there? “

“I decided you and Dean needed a welcome party.”

With a smile Gabriel plonked himself down next to Sam and produced and lolly which he proceeded to lick noisily, “Well, I’d better get comfy then.


	3. The Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel gets angry.

Castiel arrived in a flurry of wings his grace flaring and yet he appeared to be alive. He frowned and looked about, unsure of what was happening. He turned, twisting and trying to see if he was intact. He appeared to be so and he calmed slightly, before remembering that Dean was on his own with Naomi and he began to bristle again.

“Calm down, my son,” came a voice from behind him and he turned to see God looking straight at him.

“Father?” Castiel cried, dropping to his knees in front of his absence dad.

“Castiel, you have been a faithful servant of Heaven for your whole life ...” began God.

“NO!” yelled Cas, startling God, “I rebelled; I fell and I fought to stop the apocalypse!”

“My son, that was all part of the bigger plan,” God said, reaching to take Cas’ arm.

“Then you let me SUFFER! For years I thought I had hurt you!” Cas yelled, pulling away from his father’s touch.

“CASTIEL! I AM TRYING TO SAVE YOU AND SEND YOU TO HEAVEN, SO LISTEN UP!” shouted God, his face going red with rage.

Both men calmed slightly and God continued.

“Angels do get an afterlife Cassie,” he said, “you do get life ever after. I’m sending you to Heaven, so that when Dean arrives he’ll have someone to greet him.”

Castiel’s jaw dropped and he stared at God, speechless with surprise.

Castiel followed his father down a small corridor to a wooden door. 

“Through there, Cassie,” said God, gesturing to the door before he disappeared.

Castiel strode through it purposefully, only to be thrust into a whirlwind of good and bad. He was thrown through a stream of flashbacks and memories, tumbling through a   
desert of pain and misery, disrupted only by oases of blessed peace and tranquillity.

He fell to the floor, gasping for breath, wondering what fresh horrors awaited him in this new twisted nightmare. But a cool feeling washed over him and he sat up, staring around him. Pale gold gates towered into the sky, and Cas stared up at the top, wondering just how high they went and whether it was hand carved or angel-crafted.

“Down here, Bro,” called a voice and Cas started. He had not noticed anyone else in this place. He looked towards the source of the voice and saw Gabriel, leaning against Sam’s chest as they both smiled at him.

“Gabriel, Sam, can you not enter Heaven?” he asked stepping closer.

“Of course we can, any time, right Pete?” called Sam.

“Sure! Come join the party!” yelled a voice from a mini-speaker in the gate’s hinge. 

“Then why are you outside?” he asked, standing in front of them.

“We thought you and Dean-o might like a welcome party!” grinned Gabe, pulling his brother down to sit beside him as they waited for the last member of their party.


	4. The Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean joins the rest of the gang.

Dean was flung to the ground and he lay still there for a minute, unsure of where he was. He felt for his chest and noticed a distinct absence of pain. Dead, then. He climbed slowly to his feet, unsure of why there was no burning pain, no laughing torturer.

“Hello, Dean,” said a voice from behind him and he spun quickly, expecting to be stabbed in the gut the minute he faced the speaker.

“God?” asked Dean, feeling the aura of power radiating from the man he once knew as Chuck.

“That’s me,” God said, nonchalantly, looking at the older Winchester’s chest, but only because of how short he is.

“Do you shepherd every lost soul to Hell, or am I special,” asked Dean, trying to be light-hearted about his oncoming damnation.

“Dean, you’re not going to Hell,” said God simply, dropping his levity and looking straight into Dean’s eyes.

“Why? What have I done?!” asked Dean, looking with desperation into the eyes of God.

“You are a beacon of free will for all; you defied destiny because of family. You deserve it,” said God, as sincerely as he could.

“So who misses out?! Which pour soul has to go to Hell and suffer forever because I get to go to Heaven?” said Dean, softly, tears beginning to well in his eyes.

“Dean, Heaven is infinite. Everyone who deserves to get in does. It’s not first come first served like school trips,” God said, feeling a twinge of sympathy for Dean.

“I wouldn’t know about school trips,” mumbled Dean. Then he said, in a   
brighter tone, “so how does this work?”

“Dean, you travel through a clip show of your best and worst moments. When you get to the other end, you arrive at the gates to Heaven. Then Peter will let you in and you can have a good old party!” God said, before he smirked and clicked his fingers.

 _Now I know where Gabriel gets it from,_ thought Dean as he stared at the door which arrived as God left.

He ran his hands over it, searching for an imperfection or a handle. It clicked open softly and swung wide.

He thought about staying in the peaceful room but it was already fading behind him so he moved through into the darkness.

He was in a quiet room but at first he didn’t recognise it then he turned round. Tears glistened in his eyes as he saw hi past-self sat, talking honestly to Sammy’s pale corpse.

 _And I screwed it up,_ his past self said.

“NO” Dean wanted to shout, “You didn’t screw it up! Sammy turns out fine; he turns out great!”

But he couldn’t. It was only a memory and he knew what happened next. He went and sold his soul for Sam. The next 20 years of seeing Sammy happy with Gabriel were worth every second of the 40 years Dean suffered in Hell. Every second.

Dean’s view shifted and he was staring into Cas’ eyes. His lips pressed gently against his lover’s and he melted into the intimacy. He felt his hands wander over Cas’ back and pull him closer. Then grace began to shine behind Cas’ eyes. Dean tried to pull back but he couldn’t and Cas screamed against Dean’s mouth. The grace flared against Dean’s closed eyelids.

The light flicked off and Dean was in a room as his soulless brother reunited with his old-self. Then the images sped up as they flicked past faster and faster, carrying on until they blurred into one and Dean’s head began to spin.

Then he was standing in an empty room again. He glanced behind him and saw the towering, iron gates, resplendent in their glory and he felt peace in his heart.

But the peace fell away to joy as he felt familiar arms wrapping round his waist from behind and Cas nuzzled into the back of his neck.

“Dean-o, nice of you to join us. Now we can join the party!” said Gabriel’s   
voice and Dean looked up to see him and Sammy walking towards him. 

“Why are you still out here?” asked Dean, dislodging Cas to hug his brother, refusing Gabe’s hug and slotting back into his angel’s arms.

“Sasquatch here refused to enter paradise without you, so we thought we’d keep him company!” said Gabriel, grinning.

The four of them, Team Free Will, entered Heaven determined to have a great time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all folks!
> 
> Any requests or anything, feel free to ask in the comments if any one reads these.


End file.
